New Look for textReminders coming soon

Look out for a brand new look and feel coming to textReminders in the next few days. The site is undergoing a massive redesign, and results will be impressive.

Find Your Friends on textReminders - v. 1.0.1

textReminders members now have the ability to search for other friends on textReminders through their webmail. Members can find the new functionality using the left hand navigation by selecting “Contacts” then select “Add Friends” from the drop down box.  They’ll be presented with a Gmail Login box. By imputing their username and password (which will never be stored or saved in any way on our systems) they can see if any of their gmail contacts are already on the site. If they are, you can easily friend them. If their not, then there’s an option to share textReminders with them.

Currently the new, “Find a Friend” feature is only available through Gmail. More webmail carriers will be added soon.

Members are encouraged to leave feedback here.

textReminders v1.0

For quite some time I’ve just been randomly updating the blog with development news. I’ve decided to start versioning the changes so everyone knows what exact has changed. So while the site has undergone over a year of changes, I’m going to name this version 1.0 for simplicity. So what changed in V1.0?

• Home page change - updated the home page graphic to what you see above
• Groups - removed “recent activity” tab for the time being, status for non-members now reads correctly
• Forums - Recent activity now cites new Discussions, not just comments
• Cookies - Fixed an issue where one would be logged out if switching between www version and non-www version

TextReminders continues to improve both visually and functionally. Today’s improvements focused once again on the profile image. Any users still using the default profile pic will be presented with the option to choose from one of 13 new icons. They, as well as all members, can also choose to upload an actual picture of themselves at any time by clicking the “settings” button in the left navigation, then by selecting the “edit picture” link. All users can also access the new icons by going to the same, “edit picture” page.

New Search Functionaliy Ala Google

Today we upgraded our internal search engine to Google’s Custom Search. Previously textReminders had been using a script that needed manual update, and the results just weren’t that good. Google takes care of it all with results that fit seemlessly into the site without heavy ads. Thanks G!

October Updates

Well, it’s October and I’m finally starting to get some time to devote to textReminders again. Here are a few of the recent changes.

1. New Blog Look
2. Updated image icons
3. Black background around profile images fixed
4. Profile image zoom is not top instead of center
5. A new, “view all groups” link in the footer area
6. Groups Summary paragraph added to the, “Create a group” section
7. Incorrect Timezone fixed on the “View Reminders Calendar”
8. Default Profile Image updated
9. 2300 members. woot!

textReminders Help Forum

A new area of the web site has been created to help members use the site; the textReminders Help Forum.

The help forum is setup as a discussion group to answer common questions members might have. Members are encouraged to ask questions, leave comments and help other members as well. As time passes this area of the web site will be a valuable resource for both new and experienced members.

textReminders featured on CosmoGIRL.com

Earlier this month CosmoGIRL.com featured textReminders in their “Daily Kiss” Blog. The spot features a savvy way to use textReminders to help girls remember to refresh their makeup every few months. The full article resides at: http://www.cosmogirl.com/blog/beauty-text-message-reminders

A big, “Thank You!” to Colleen and the CosmoGIRL staff for the great mention.

(Here is a screen shot of the article)

Revamped Groups

So before the redesign was released we had a feature on the site called, “Groups”. Basically it was a forum where people could invite a group of friends to share thoughts around a particular topic.

Since the redesign, the groups feature had been hidden, as I didn’t have time to overhaul the entire area.

Now that I’ve had a little bit of time to work on things, I’ve ended up re-tooling the entire groups section. The basic functionality hasn’t changed, but the execution of it has. Now it’s easier than ever to invite friends, create discussions and follow the conversation.

While still not, “finished” (nothing on the site ever is) it’s a fun way of interacting with friends, or meeting people with similar interests.

Go ahead, start a group and share your thoughts!

1200 Members!

textReminders membership has been climbing at a steady rate these past few months, and I’m proud to see that over 1200 members have joined and are using the site.

From the onset, the goal was to provide people with an easy to use, free text reminders service. What seperates us from the rest is the sleek design, advanced features and ease of use.

In a few months here we’ll be coming up on textReminders 1 year anniversery. Can’t wait to celebrate!